The City Hall Planning Office will hold a public meeting tonight at Charlottesville High School to review 14 traffic-calming projects concerning residential neighborhoods.
"Traffic calming is a strategy to slow down the average speed of cars," explained Rebecca White, assistant director of the University's Department of Parking and Transportation. "It involves adding bicycle lanes and islands and narrowing roads."
Rugby Road, Wertland Street, Alderman Road, McCormick Road and Park Street are some of the proposed traffic-calming project sites.
This meeting marks the beginning of the traffic-calming process adopted by the city in September 1999. The meeting was called because part of the traffic- calming process requires that neighborhood associations be allowed to petition for projects and expand the limits of residential area traffic calming.
Charlottesville City Council provides manpower and funding in its budget for traffic projects, which are initiated by neighborhood associations.
Charlottesville City Council member Meredith Richards said she anticipates residents' concern over providing alternative routes for cut-through traffic.
"If it's easy to cut through a neighborhood, drivers will," Richards said. Hopefully, "traffic calming serves to remind drivers that they're in a residential area."
The Park Street corridor between Martha Jefferson Hospital and Court Square has been cited as one of the main focuses of the traffic-calming project. Strategies for discouraging speeding include "bumping out curbs," or as White explained, "making curbs constrict the width of the road, reducing the width of roads."
White noted the success of a recent traffic-calming project on Rugby Road, between Madison House and Culbreth Road, which involved adding bicycle lanes.
"It was a win-win situation," White said. "The bicycle lanes created a network for bikers, plus it calmed down the traffic."
White suggested University students attend today's public meeting at Charlottesville High School's cafeteria from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. She also stressed the need for students to "drive more slowly," particularly in high traffic areas, such as Alderman Road, and Rugby Road between the Preston and Grady intersections.
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